JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- City leaders are questioning the salary of a newly-appointed senior official in Mayor Alvin Brown's administration.
Theodore Carter was appointed to director of the city's Office of Economic Development in November. He started the job earlier this month with a $195,000 annual salary.
Action News reporter Ryan Smith did some digging and obtained an internal payroll document from the city's human resources department.
According to the report, the maximum salary for Carter's position is about $179,000. That's thousands of dollars less than what he is being paid.
A number of city council members came to Action News questioning the pay hike. Stephen Joost said the city needs to provide the public with answers.
"Yeah, we're paying him a little more than the cap, $16,000 is a significant number above the cap and here's the reason why."
Action News took the councilman's concerns to City Hall. A spokesman with the mayor's office says it was an internal error.
"Because of a clerical error, the pay range associated with his position was incorrectly imputed in the personnel system. We are correcting that information in our personnel system and will provide updated information where appropriate," said Director of Communications for Mayor Alvin Brown, David DeCamp.
Leading the Office of Economic Development, DeCamp says Carter's position was elevated in importance and responsibility by Brown. Carter was made a senior official who reports directly to the mayor.
According to city officials, maximum salary for Carter's position is now $209,000 but hasn't been updated within payroll. Carter is now making about $50,000 more than his predecessor, which some say isn't the best interest for taxpayers.
"This is an example of the wrong way of going about spending taxpayer dollars," said President of the Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, John Winkler.
Councilman Clay Yarborough echoed the same statement, "The former director was paid $152,000 a year and worked hard for the city. This doesn’t make sense in an environment where the City Council is continually reducing budgets and trying to save taxpayer dollars while at the same time providing adequate services to our constituents."
Carter still has to be approved by the full city council.
